Stalkers
Stalker is the general term in the Metro system for any individuals who venture to the surface for valuable supplies, often risking life and limb to keep the whole Metro alive. Overview Stalkers search for fuel, ammunition, and other salvageable materials at the surface to sell them in the Metro or keep them for themselves. They sometimes have small hideouts on the surface, built into ruined apartments or office buildings where they stash their findings, though most live in stations, bringing them their findings. Stalkers often work alone, or in small teams, but they universally aid each other by leaving supply drops on the surface, leaving brightly coloured markers as guideposts in the swamps, and having flashlight signals to communicate. Many Stalkers are mentioned as having military backgrounds, pre-war. It is heavily implied that a Stalker's life expectancy is very low, so those who venture upwards must be either thrill-seekers or sucidal - in the lawless Metro, either is possible. Stalkers are often considered insane by most other inhabitants of the metro, with Bourbon referring to them in the video game as "crazy devils". Equally though, everyone relies on them for everything, giving them an almost godly status. Very few Stalkers are ever seen in the games - most are dessicated corpses that Artyom can search for supplies from, again alluding to their deadly profession. Novel Stalkers have a more central role in the novel than in the video games, replacing the rangers completely. They are envied by station dwellers for their skill and bravery. The Rangers in game are derived from the faction of which Miller is part of in the book - he leads a commando unit of Stalkers into Park Pobedy station to rescue Artyom, or, more specifically, Anton, wearing similar armor to the Rangers in game. Much like the Rangers, they still play a big part in the defense of Polis, the Kshatriya class being warrior-Stalkers dedicated to the station. Stalkers were said to be armed with unusual short assault rifles with laser sights and silencers, possibly AKS-74Us, and wore long heavy bullet-proof vests over black uniforms. In addition, massive titanium helmets with face guards and large titanium shields with eye slits added to their intimidating view. Trivia * The term Stalker is not by any means derived from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise as commonly thought, but from the book, Roadside Picnic, by Strugatski brothers (on which the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are based) This is where the term "stalker" was used for the first time. Games * Many dead stalkers found on the surface appear to be wearing older soviet-era gas masks, similar to GP -5s. *Unlike in Metro 2033, you can identify living stalkers in Metro: Last Light: **The first stalkers that the player will identify are Reich stalkers, though they are only seen briefly before they knock Artyom out. **Pavel travelled to the Botanical Gardens with another Stalker to find any remaining Dark Ones, though they too were captured. **Occasianally on the surface, gunshots can be heard from afar. These are possibly from Stalkers battling with mutants. The most notable of these are during The Dead City, which cause a Watchman pack to scatter. **Simon, from Venice, is mentioned as being a Stalker, as a child's mother mentions that her son's teddy bear was brought from the surface by Simon, and how rare toys are these days. **The Polis Kshatriya team are Stalkers from Polis who explore the surface to find artifacts to preserve the culture and knowledge of old-Russia. Their latest assignment was to explore the Moscow State Library. Books * Most of Metro inhabitants views stalkers as heroes and thus highly respected, "even more than former Metro workers". Stalkers were compared to "the knights in shining armors" because of their job and well-kept anti-radiation suits. As such, they replaced the "childhood dream" occupations such as cosmonauts or pilots. * In some cases, Stalkers were criminals sent to the surface as a form of capital punishment, though giving a dangerous criminal a gun and letting him go free seems slightly nonsensical. * The Stalkers' light signal, used on the surface, to reveal their identity as a Stalker, is three circles drawn with turned on flash-light. The response signal is copying the same three circles. Galley Stalker.jpg|The first identified Stalker in the game. Like the rest, he is dead. RussianStalkerConceptArt8.jpg|Concept art of the Metro 2033 video game. While none of the concept art images explicitly describe the figures as Stalkers, they feature many characteristics common to them. RussianStalkerConceptArt7.jpg|Ditto. RussianStalkerConceptArt6.jpg|Ditto. RussianStalkerConceptArt5.jpg|Ditto. RussianStalkerConceptArt3.jpg|Ditto. RussianStalkerConceptArt2.jpg|Ditto. RussianStalkerConceptArt.jpg|Ditto. url.png|The first live stalkers seen in Metro Last Light: Nazis Category:Factions Category:Developer Pack DLC